| The Architecture of Discovery Green Wins International Design Award |
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The second annual Green GOOD DESIGN program, sponsored by The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies and The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design, honored architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning projects, products and graphic designs from over 31 nations. The program emphasizes the importance of sustainable design and provides a public awareness program to the general international public. All winning 2010 Green GOOD DESIGN projects and products will be exhibited at a Conference on the Environment which will be held in Hamburg, Germany, during April 2011. 
The design of the three primary buildings in the park—the Lake House café, the Alkek park building and The Grove restaurant—focused on making landscape-oriented buildings that would blend seamlessly with the outdoor environment and would be respectful of natural forces and phenomena. There is as much outdoor space in the buildings as indoor space. Park buildings have expansive glass faces on the north exposure, capturing natural lighting and creating contiguous indoor/outdoor relationships, while large shaded outdoor verandas on southern exposures reduce solar heat gain and encourage outdoor seating and gathering by providing shelter from Houston’s characteristic hot sun and periodic downpours. The south-facing porch roofs of the Alkek building and the Lake House cafe support 256 photovoltaic collectors that provide 8% of the power needed for the park. PageSoutherlandPage provided architecture, MEP engineering, LEED consulting and commissioning services for Discovery Green, which opened in April 2008. Hargreaves Associates, of San Francisco, served as park planner and prime landscape architect, and Miner-Dederick was the general contractor. Media Contact: Nancy Acker Fleshman - This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it |
Houston, TX (13 October 2010) – The Architecture of